


In A Hamlet Up The Hill

by haraldstad2joni



Series: A Living Hell in The Southeast [1]
Category: Actor RPF, American Actor RPF, British Actor RPF, LOTR Actor RPF, Lee Pace - Fandom, Richard Armitage - Fandom, The Hobbit RPF
Genre: Actors as Soldiers, Alternate Universe - 1960s, American Soldiers, Established Relationship, Inspired by a Movie, Lee and Richard found love in war, M/M, Vietnam War, War Drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-10
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-05 22:28:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5392613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haraldstad2joni/pseuds/haraldstad2joni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sgt. Lee G. Pace was an American GI's soldier who served in Vietnam during the 1960's, along with his platoon leader 1st Lt. Richard C. Armitage and three fellow soldiers they found a diabolic tragedy in a South Vietnam village during their mission to search and destroy the remaining Viet Cong guerillas in early 1969. What they found and did later become a miserable boomerang that would change their life and mind forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Strange Patrol

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first RPF starring Lee Pace and Richard Armitage as the main characters.  
> The story was inspired by some Vietnam war movies such as Platoon (1986), Hamburger Hill (1987), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Casualties of War (1989), The Deer Hunter (1978) and so on.  
> The events happened in this story was actually based on the real ones, in which I fictionalized some part of it, i.e The My Lai Massacre (1968) in the beginning of the story. Some of them would be fictional ones.  
> I'm using the real military unit for this, but in respect of the real Vietnam veterans, this is just a pure FICTION, and I have no intention to insult or humiliate the real veterans served in the units.
> 
> *the italic parts are Lee's POV

_It was an early morning when I and other five men from my unit were ordered as a patrol squad in early January 1969. I did not know or even think why we got such task where two platoons of the Charlie Company moved directly to a suspicious district in Quang Ngai province of South Vietnam. It was the order from the U.S Military Assistance Command as the aftermath of Tet Offensive during 1968 that we had to do such search and destroy operation against 48th Local Force Battalion of Viet Cong. The high command officers suspected that there must be the remains of Viet Cong guerillas in some districts in South Vietnam even if mostly of them were already retreated to north and killed during the Tet offensive. ___

_This was my third year in Vietnam since my unit was sent here in 1966. Personally, I was so pessimistic that we would win this war. As a soldier who overcame the fact that so many of us died last year during the great offensive against North Vietnam Army and Viet Cong, took time almost a year of aggression, I definitely doubted it. As I reminded my own decision to be the part of this Army, I started to regret it. I am no one but a living flesh trapped in between the horror of landmines and bullets. I had nothing to do but following the order. An order could lead me to die as what happened to some of my fellows and to survive as well, as what happened to me during these last three years in this living hell._

__Lee Grinner Pace was a sergeant and he was supposed to lead his patrol squad across the thick forest in south central coast region of South Vietnam. They were five and was too small to be called a squad but too big as a fire team. Yet he was with 1st Lieutenant Richard Armitage, one of the company officer, the third platoon leader who finally took lead of him and his three other squad members, Sergeant Orlando Bloom, Corporal Anthony Thornburg and Private First Class Jacob O’Connell. Bloom was a machine gunner, while Thornburg was a radiotelephone operator and O’Connell was a rifleman. They were chosen to be dropped from a helicopter in the open ground of a river bank while the other company members moved further to the north. They had ordered to patrol the forest, reporting if there was any suspicious movement of enemy or any sign that indicated that they were there._ _

__“Why’d you think they had to put us here in this goddamned forest while the others move to north, Lieutenant?” Lee asked, cocking his M16 rifle, eyes inspected the green dense vegetation around._ _

__“We’re not alone, Pace,” Richard said. He held his Thompson submachine gun tight in his shoulder, “The rest of my men are also dropped in other spots, in case we found some suspicious signs around.”_ _

__They moved to the north where they were supposed to meet the others at the district before eight o’clock. The sky was still dark but the red hint of dawn already appeared in the east. The sound of crickets was still heard and the air was cold as ice, fresh and freezing at the same time. There was nothing to be found about Viet Cong in the first thirty minutes walking on the humid rain forest._ _

__The squad stopped for a while as they found an uninhabited old hut, presumably used by the VC but from what they could find out, it was no longer used during the Tet Offensive as nothing but broken and dusty utensils and fireplace were remained._ _

__“It’s useless to let us doing this fucking mission, we’ll find nothing but old hut with spider webs like this piece of shit,” Orlando mumbled while lifted his M60 machine gun to his shoulders, “And what the fuck they thought about sending two sergeants in one squad? And, we’re just five, not enough to be a squad, damnit!” he giggled._ _

__Richard could only smile. He knew these men were absolutely annoyed to be put in such mission. He was, as well. He was a lieutenant, who strangely and unfortunately deserved a few credits from his unit. He was a quiet man, he did so much for his unit. He fought in the frontline during the offensive or other smaller aggressions. He was a man who actually deserved a Medal of Honor, but he did not like to show what he did to anyone and it explained why he was rather remained discredited by his unit._ _

__Seeing the Lieutenant moved away and sat on the big root of a massive tree to light a cigarette, the other men looked at each other._ _

__“I still dunno why Captain Miller put him with us,” Jack said._ _

__“Don’t be such a dumbass, O’Connell, how many fucking officers seem to like this man?” Orly smoked his cigarette._ _

__Jack looked at Lee as he was an innocent guy who came lately in the second phase of Tet Offensive, May last year._ _

__“Armitage was a transferred officer from 101st Airborne who was sent to Vietnam and fought with 7th Cavalry. The unit was severely cut off during the Battle of Ia Drang 1965. He is a real son of a bitch, you know, he would fight in the frontline while the others choose not to, like those typical asshole in the regiment,” Lee explained while watching the Lieutenant sat on the poking root, tilted his head, looking through the forest canopy at the reddening dawn sky._ _

__“If there is a military honor for the men in this regiment, I’m sure he deserves it more than anyone. I saw nobody would risk his life to save a group of trapped and badly wounded soldiers, or penetrated the enemy lines alone as fast as he did when we were on a face-to-face combat with North Vietnam bastards. We saw him did, but the higher officers? I guessed they pretended to be fucking blind about this man,” Tony added, checking his radio to see if there was anything wrong with his precious thing that he always carried for about three years in battle._ _

__Jack nodded even if his curiosity was not clearly answered by the older soldiers. The eighteen year old trooper looked at the long nosed Lieutenant who was now taking off his helmet and showing the long vertical scar in his left cheek near his ear._ _

__“Come on, sons, we move, move!” Richard commanded, lead the way for his man, walking through the cold forest._ _

__Lee looked down at his watch, it was almost 08.00 when they saw a village up the hill. They heard the gun fire ringing at the spot they needed to reach. This village was suspected as one of the underground bases of remaining VCs._ _

__“Dammit! Do they really found the fucking VC out there?” Orly looked at Lee who looked back at him in confusion._ _

__They moved quickly from the forest and ran up to the hill where the village, codenamed the Pinkville was situated. The gun firing still rang up and the five men started to hear women and children crying desperately. When they reached a hamlet gate, they swore they would not believe what they saw._ _


	2. The Diabolic Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What Richard and his men found on a hamlet was a truly terrible nightmare coming into reality. They've seen the horror of battle against the NVAs and VCs before. They've seen bodies scattered by the landmines, napalm bombs and machine guns but they thought they were nothing than this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the part when the tragedy happened. This event was based on The controversial My Lai Massacre in March 1968 where Charlie Company of 25th Infantry Division of U.S Army being ordered in a search and destroy mission. They massacred at least 300-500 villagers of Son My village including children and infants, and claimed that the place was a Viet Cong supports, only a few weapons found on the scene. Mostly the victims were unarmed and noncombatant civilians.   
> In this story, there are some parts getting fictionalized, i.e the platoon's patrol and the five soldiers' ideas to save the villagers are actually belong to three helicopter's crews in the real event.   
> With no intention to insult U.S Army units and service men, I just tried to depict how terrible the massacre was, in which what I've written is presumably not as horrific as the real one.

As the walked deeper into the outer hamlet, their bewilderment of that situation began clearer. They witnessed some men aimed their rifles at about ten crying women and children and shot them to death in the head. All of them were unarmed, crying and begging for their life but ended up with bullets. Their blood gushed around the ground and their brains scattered from their broken heads. 

They did not waste time for the next seconds after they witnessed all of the wrongness. The five men, newly arrived at the crime scene shouted to cease fire unsuccessfully. The situation started to be very unclear and dark. They saw blood, scattered brains and intestines everywhere, in the middle of gun fire and desperate crying from the miserable civilians. 

“Fuck you!” Richard cursed, looking at a soldier who just killed the women and children and gripped his collar, “Who give you order to do this?!” 

“Lieutenant Dillon, Sir,” the soldier answered with no regret in his face—as he, according to himself, only followed the order. 

“Save the remaining civilians, as many as you can,” Richard said, giving a command.

“But we’re against the order, Sir,” Jack hesitated.

“The order is bullshit, O’Connell, if you’re a man, save them!” Richard snapped and rushed to the other lieutenant.

“Dillon, you son of a bitch!” Richard growled furiously, running to the place where he found the other lieutenant threw a grenade into a well after pushing three villagers there. As Richard saw the unarmed villagers exploded inside the well, he became truly engaged with his anger and strode quickly to the lieutenant.

“What the fuck are you doing?! You piece of shit!” Richard hit the other lieutenant with his Thompson wood handler right in his face.

“We are ordered to capture and kill the VC, not the unarmed ones, women and children, you motherfucker!” Richard shouted. 

“Fuck you Armitage! You don’t know anything about what happened here!” Dillon stood up, feeling the pain in his face. 

“We are supposed to evacuate the unarmed elders, women and children, if we find this goddamned village is a VC base, don’t you hear that?” Richard hissed. 

“All of them are VC, even the babies, they are gook babies, you dumb! Stop talking to me about that shit of order. I am the responsible officer here, not you, a banished dog from your unit!” Dillon loaded his gun, ready to kill again. 

Richard glared in anger and hit the lieutenant in his mouth until he bled, “Say that again and I’ll blow off your fucking mouth!” he threat. 

 

Lee ran through the gun fire, he shouted at his company fellowmen who followed the order of their lieutenant who also ordered by the higher command to destroy the village—including the villagers. 

“Stop it! Fuck you all, stop!” he cried out, taking two little children who almost got killed in his arms. He could save them but not with their mothers who now lied lifelessly with a big hole in their heads.

“Get the fuck out of there, Pace!” Lee heard someone yelled at him, but he did not really care, he tried to save as many as he could, or at least made the other soldier stop their fire against the innocent children.

“You wanna shoot them, motherfucker? Then y’all should shoot me first!” he shrieked. Some men were dumbfounded to see him very brave to go against the order. He would be discharged soon after this over, but he did not care at all. 

Everything was a mess. Five men tried to save villagers lives while the others aimed to kill them. Of course, they could not do too much for this. An order would be an order. Yet, unlike many of those who were afraid to say no and went against the order, they would, even they had to be pushed against the wall and shot in the head by their own men shortly after they finished. For these five men, there was no reason accepted to kill an unarmed people, men, women and especially children in any circumstances. For now, they were not on a real direct combat mission, killed unarmed civilian would be considered as illegal killing and soon be brought up to the court-martial. Yet if it commit by the whole unit like this, the fact could be covered up very easily and justice would only be a seven letter word of nothing. 

Jack went stunned for a moment, holding a baby boy in his arm. His hands covered in blood as he found this baby hidden under his dead mother body, covered with the piece of her brain at first. The baby cried, looked for his mother who he would never see anymore. And the young soldier stopped when a little girl came to him, crying and saying words he did not understand, then he held her hand, walked her and tried to find the safe place. The other soldiers only saw him at first.

“Why the fuck are you afraid to be discharged? We’re fucking soldiers, American soldiers, we’re supposed to kill NV armed soldiers, not these women and kids, you all son of a bitch!” he yelled and got spit on his face by the others as he walked.

But his words moved some of them, they who only looked at their fellowmen killed the unarmed villagers, started to make up their mind, they evacuated the wounded and still alive villagers. Some of their efforts were stopped by the others, as they finally argued against each other and ended up by other soldiers cocking their weapons, killing the almost-evacuated villagers to stop the tension. 

Some of the soldiers tried to get the baby and the little girl from Jack. He refused at first and went into an argument with them until he lose the baby. 

“Don’t kill him! You motherfucker!” he shrieked and saw the little girl ran away and got shot by someone unknown. She fell down and her blood spilled in the ground. 

Everything turned soundless that time he saw the little girl died before his eyes. He even could not feel when they beat him in the face, tried to stop him saved the villagers. With tears fell from his eyes, he looked at the bright blue sky, asking to himself whether God saw all of these atrocities or not. 

 

That time Orly strode into the soldiers crowd, he yelled to stop firing, but some of them held him from rescuing the crying women and children, who hopelessly prayed at a small Buddhist temple. They were like deliberately gathered there and were ready to get killed. 

“No, you son of a bitch! You can’t do this shit, man!” he shouted out loud.

“Who do you think you are, Bloom?! We have ordered, so shut the fuck up!” one of them shouted back at him. 

Orly could not believe that he was stuck in such situation where he really wanted to stop but could only witnessed it all to be done by his own friends.

“Oh, Jesus, no!” he whispered when he finally watched with his own eyes, his fellowmen threw grenades to the temple and blew out the building along with the praying women and children. He moved back and walked away from the crowd who spectacularly saw the human beings were roasted alive. 

He looked at his surrounding. The dwellings were set on fire and the dead bodies along the yard with blood spilled out, darkening the ground. He thought he already seen the worst before, but now he realized that he was totally wrong. According to the rule, if one area was a free-fire zone to the U.S Army the responsible GIs could do anything including killing the civilians, but he knew well this was not even told in the briefing. This area was not a free-fire zone and nobody had rights over the civilians’ lives. A part of himself told that as a human being, he thought there were so much wrongness in this mission—no matter what the purpose. So, he tried to stop the horror even that he failed. Yet as a soldier, he definitely had nothing to do but follow the order from the superiors—or even if he did not want to, he could only see everything happened. 

 

Tony wiped dripped blood from his nose and put back his broken eyeglasses on his eyes. He tried to get up after a group of soldiers hit him while he tried to stop them raping a girl whom was now already dead with skull torn open and her brain blown out to the ground. 

The half Japanese soldier walked with no direction and his vision was blurred after the hitting and he could not see clearly with this broken glasses. He could saw some helicopters flew above him obscurely and not so long after he heard the air machine gun not far from the miserable hamlet he was in now. 

_They destroy the other hamlet!_ He thought.

Not so long after, he thought he saw a bunker with some people under a collapsed hut. He blinked his eyes to make sure he was not wrong with such sight. He moved closer to the bunker and kneeled down, looked to the left and right, tried not to draw attention from the others. 

He saw about seven to ten people under the bunker, all of them cried and begged, thought he would kill them. With all of his limited Vietnamese language, he tried to communicate with them, “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna kill you, I’ll get you out of here, I’ll help you,” he said.

Tony knew that if he took them out of the bunker now, they would be killed like the others. He thought hard how to take them out alive, at first he thought about his radiotelephone to communicate with the base camp, yet those soldiers pulled his radio off of him when they ganged up on him. 

“Stay here, don’t make any sound, I’ll be back,” he warned the villagers before he went away to look for Richard. 

In his way, he tried to save some children, and he moved quietly not to draw any attention from the others. He took two children to the bunker and kept them there. He promised to save them secretly, as if they were caught by the others, all of them would be dead. 

 

Tony met Jack on his way looking for his lieutenant and told him if he wanted to save the remaining children, he could take them secretly to the bunker near the collapsed hut not far from the slope. Jack understood and he tried to save other children by took him there in secret. Tony told Orly and Lee to do the same thing and they agreed. Not all of their efforts were successfully, some were finally killed but at least the bunker was not yet discovered. 

While Richard tried to stop the men from killing the women and children, his effort was mostly fruitless. They knew he was an officer but he had no power of order like Dillon had. He was a discredited officer who lately often to be put on the less significant action whereas he did many things for this unit since his transfer from 7th Cavalry to this 25th Infantry Division. 

Richard took a three year old boy in his arm after her mother died to cover him from being shot by the GIs, “Shoot him if you want! Then you’ll shoot me too,” he snapped and the lower ranks enlisted men got shock by his anger. They stepped back when he walk across the crowd. 

The lieutenant tried to calm down the crying little boy in his arm, “You’re gonna be okay,” he hugged him tenderly. His eyes went down to the boy’s legs and realized that he was physically deformed. The little boy looked at him with big hopeful eyes, begged wordlessly to be saved. 

When he saw Tony was close to him, he was about to give the child to him to be put on a safe place. Yet he heard gun firing in the air, very close to him, and made his ears almost deaf. The next second, he realized that his face splattered by blood. Someone fired the boy. 

Richard went dumbfounded that time he knew the boy died in Tony’s arms. Then he moved his eyes from the dead boy to the shooter, not far from them. That was Lieutenant James Dillon, loaded his M16.

“The only way to save them is with this, Armitage. Take it, you are soldier, not a _saint_!” Dillon yelled, smirked and went away. 

Indeed he was a soldier, never a saint, not even a good man. He killed many VC, many husbands, many fathers, many sons of them who were left behind somewhere. He was already a killing machine and considered as a traitor of his kind. A killing machine should kill, not saved women and children, even if they were unarmed and innocent, when an order went to a machine to be done, the machine could only obey the order. But Richard once again tried to prove he was not a heartless, lifeless machine. 

He was a man who had family. He had a mother, four little sisters and two little brothers. These women who were shot in the head reminded him of his mother. These girls who miserably got gang-raped and killed reminded him of his sisters. And these boys who being pushed into wells and blown out by grenades were reminded him of his brothers. No matter how people saw him as the Crazy Dick of C Company who penetrated the enemy lines alone, could kill one of the VC commanders and went back with severe wounds in his face, this one who brutally assaulted VC stronghold and killed many of them during the Ia Drang and Tet Offensive was born from a woman’s womb as a human.


	3. The Helping Hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The circumstance in the miserable village was not getting better at least until a helicopter consisted of three crews hovering around the crime scene and offered helping hands for the remaining villagers. Yet still the tragedy did not stop there...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, there is a part based and inspired by Sean Penn's 1989 movie _Casualties of War_.

Richard walked pointlessly to the edge of a paddy field where he went motionless at a moment. He could feel tears melted in his cheeks. There was so much rage inside him ready to explode from his chest. He did not want to regret twice. He remembered during the battle of Ia Drang, he failed to save two little children and a baby with their wounded mother from their hut that finally destroyed by recoilless rifle. 

In the middle of his anguish and anger, Richard heard the sound of helicopter in low hover not far from the field. He waved his hands giving a sign to the helicopter crews to move closer. 

“Hey what the hell happened here? Those civilians are _killed_!” the pilot asked to his crew chief next to him.

The crew chief shrugged in bewilderment, “I don’t know, Sir. We just passed this section when this GIs arrived, no VC fire, but something wrong may happened,” he answered.  
“Please, we need your help, Sir, we need your help now!” Richard begged and almost sobbed. He knew by the aircraft engine sound, his voice would be hardly heard, but he just did, as he had been too desperate to find a way.

The pilot nodded and landed not far from the field, he hopped down from his seat and moved closer to the perplexed soldier, “What happened to this place? We’ve also seen something similar in the next hamlet,” the pilot asked once again.

“Something went wrong, Sir,” Richard muttered, “They killed the noncombatant, unarmed elders, women and children,” he continued. 

“Oh, Jesus Christ!” the captain startled, “So what can we do now, Lieutenant? Where we can help the remaining villagers?” 

Richard stuttered for a moment before shouted at Tony to come closer, “He knows where to find the remaining villagers, Sir,” Richard said. 

“Hop in, man,” the door gunner asked the slanted eyes man to go with them and shown the villagers hiding place. 

The helicopter almost landed not far from the slope, close to the bunker where they saw some of the soldiers were already there, almost reached the bunker when the captain flew his helicopter low and landed at the yard.

He shouted at the personnel, “You shoot that bunker and I order my gunner to shoot all of you!”

“We follow the order, Sir,” one of the soldiers told.

“Who’s your CO here?” the warrant officer, later identify as Warrant Officer 4 Karl Urban from 123rd Aviation Battalion asked the soldier impatiently. 

“It’s me, Sir. I think you better turn back to your chopper now,” Dillon answered.

“What d’you think you do to this hamlet, Lieutenant?” Karl nodded in detained anger, ignoring the lieutenant urge to leave.

“I just follow the order, Chief, we all do,” Dillon insisted, “The only way to get ‘em out of that bunker is with _frags_ , it will end all of their misery.”

Karl went confused with the situation at a time but he soon took a grip on himself, “Can you just shut the fuck up? Just hold your men right where they are, I’ll get the villagers out,” he asked Tony and his two crew members, Specialist 6 Luke Evans, the door gunner and Specialist 6 Craig Parker the crew chief to help him took the children, two women and an elder man out of the bunker and led them to the helicopter. 

Richard who was already there carried a woman who could no longer walk from the bunker to the helicopter. He said no word. He could say nothing but thanks to the helicopter crews for their help. 

“Lieutenant, I’ll be back as soon as possible, make sure you gather all of the remaining villagers and keep them safe while I fly these ones first,” Karl went closer to Richard ear while whispering, “There will be court-martial for this, I promise.”

Richard nodded and let the pilot hopped in to his seat and the helicopter flew higher, left the ground with the saved villagers. His heart was still incredibly painful but also relieved for him, his other four men and three helicopter’s crewmen at least could save ten remaining lives. 

Richard tried to ignore the other personnel looked at him in such disgust, anger and bewildered—some of them could not help but expressing gratitude for his bravery went against the order to save the unarmed and innocent villagers. 

At the time he turned his back, he felt a fist hit against his face until he fell down to the ground. He knew it was Dillon who fought him. 

“Now, you hit me, you fucking cowardly bastard!” Richard wiped blood from his nose. He stood up and pushed Dillon down and smashed his head to the ground.

“You can’t be a hero, Armitage, you’re bloody useless fucking dog! You’re a bloody killer, remember? A sinner can never be a saint! Don’t you ever think to be crusader here, because we don’t need no one!” Dillon shouted.

“Shut the fuck up! I’m no fucking crusader, nor saint, or God, but you can’t be a fucking god here. They are human, fucking defenseless human, Dillon you son of a bitch!” Richard pointed at Dillon’s chest and the other lieutenant was ready to hit him where some soldiers from both side tried to prevent them fought for more.

 

While Lee still searched for the other remaining villagers, he heard a sobbing from the bushes not far from the bamboo bridge. It was a woman’s voice and when he went closer, he found the GIs voices around.

“You bloody bastards! Let her go!” Lee shrieked and strode through the crowd of ten men raped the girl. He pushed away a soldier who enjoyed his turn raping the girl, “Get the fuck off of her, Smith, you motherfucker!” he swore and helped the girl wearing her trouser. 

“Why don’t you try her, Pace? Enjoy your time, she’s fucking beautiful gook!” Smith mocked.

“I ain’t an animal like you fuckers,” Lee answered and someone spat on his face.

“Are you homosexual, Pace?” one of the soldier yelled and the other laughed.

“Indeed he is, man. Look, he must get his ass used by his lieutenant, that bitch Armitage,” another soldier mocked.

Something turned him truly upset when someone insulted the lieutenant, “Shut the fuck up, you all fuckin’ animals, she is a human being, you piece of shit!” Lee hugged the long haired girl tighter in his arms.

He moved away, tried to be as far as possible from the animalistic personnel and let the girl rested. He was a little bit helped by his Vietnamese, as he usually got task to interrogate the VC though his accent was so terrible.

“Now, drink this,” Lee gave the girl his water bottle, “Don’t worry, I’m here to help you, I’m not gonna hurt you, can you believe me?” he asked, looked at the girl, who possibly was seventeen year old.

“Why you help me, Mister Soldier?” the girl asked. Her voice trembled and her body shaken. Lee looked down at her feet and saw traces of blood dripped from her groin down to her legs, made red lines in her lousy and dirty white trouser.

“Because we have no reason to hurt you, you have no guns, we are not supposed to hurt you. It is wrong. You are unarmed civilian, you should not be killed. I’ll try to take you to the safe place, I promise you,” Lee wiped the girl’s tears in her bruised cheek. She was very beautiful. Her hair was long, her face was pure with a pair of round dark brown eyes and her lips were tiny. Even when she was in fear and covered in severed bruises, she still looked beautiful. It was quite hard for Lee to see this girl being mistreated, beaten in the face until she bled badly. 

“Thank you, Mister Soldier, you are good man sent by God, to deliver us from evil,” she said, caressing Lee’s cheek. The soldier smiled to hear those words and noticed a rosary peeked through her blouse. 

“What’s your name, girl?” Lee asked.

“Nguyen Thi Oanh, and, what’s your name, Mister Soldier?” the girl named Oanh smiled.

“My name is Lee Pace, you can call me Lee,” Lee smiled back, tapping the girl’s shoulder gently, “Let’s go, Oanh, we have to be hurry,” he lifted the girl to ease them reach the safe place as she would hardly walk in such condition. 

“Please take this, Mister Lee, I hope God always be with you,” Oanh took off her rosary and put it on Lee’s neck. 

“Thank you so much, may God be with you too,” Lee whispered and took Oanh in his arms, until they finally had to stop before they reached the bridge. 

“Let the girl off, Pace, this is an order,” a soldier said.

“No, we are supposed to cease fire,” Lee refused.

“This is an order from Lieutenant Dillon,” Smith butted, “Put the girl now or I’ll shoot both of you.”

“Just shoot me, Smith, shoot me,” Lee challenged. 

“Can you just fucking give up, Pace?” Smith moved closer, “You’re goddamned lucky, he did not ordered us to shoot you, your men and your dog lieutenant.”

“Stop talking shit about Armitage, you motherfucker,” Lee hissed, being too sick to hear the lieutenant got insulted by most of the company. 

Three men walked closer and tried to take the girl away from Lee’s arms. They hit him in the stomach until he growled in pain and lost his grip against Oanh. 

“Don’t hurt her!” Lee yelled out. He tried to get up but two men held him tight so he could not reach the girl anymore, “Why the fuck you don’t get satisfied slaughtering this village?!” he asked in confusion.

“Mister Lee, help me!” Oanh struggled in the soldier’s arms, cried desperately, begging for help when Smith pulled her into the middle of the bridge. 

Lee tried to get out from his fellowmen. He would never let this girl, who was one of the last remained in the hamlet, being hurt once again.

The other soldiers laughed and mocked when they heard the girl begged for help and cried out loud, “She wants you, Pace, she wants you to fuck her!” Smith yelled.

“Fuck you!” Lee cursed. He was big enough to make the two soldiers let him go, but they did not let him, there were two more held him back tightly while Smith hostage the girl.

“Walk on, you gook bitch!” Smith pushed Oanh to the bridge, almost made her fell into the water gap. He loaded his M16 at first and let the girl walked back to Lee, “See, Pace, she walks to you, wants your fucking dick on her fucking cunt!” and then when she quite far enough, he walked closer and stabbed her back with his rifle bayonet. Oanh screamed miserably and the blood started flooding her blouse when the stabbing got through her stomach. She almost fell but Smith pushed her forward, forced her to keep walking.

“You stab her, you fucking son of a bitch!” Lee cursed insanely. Some part of him told that she would not survive. She would get killed as soon as possible, “Oh, no, Smith, please!” he begged when Smith took over a M60 machine gun from one of his friends.

Seeing Oanh cried out loud in pain, holding her blood gushed stomach and walked limply towards Lee, Smith ordered his men to kill her, “Shoot her! Y’all shoot her!” he shouted.   
The other two men, aiming their M16 against the girl were hesitated to shoot, while Lee kept shouting and begging for the girl’s life. 

“What the fuck y’all fucking pussies? Shoot her!” Smith yelled out. The two men fired their rifle and two bullets went through the girl’s chest. She screamed in agony but kept walking to the begging man. 

Smith got stunned to see the girl kept walking while bullet went through her chest. She kept calling Lee’s names and begged for help when finally he bombarded her with the light machine gun until she stopped. 

She screamed, her eyes wide opened, looked straight at Lee in tears. She finally came to her fate, killed all of her hope to be saved the last time. Her body lost the balance, she collapsed to the right like a dead tree. Her sobbing kept echoed when at last she fell into the rocky water gap below the bridge. 

“Jesus, No!” Lee screamed and tears fell from his sore eyes. His body went limped and the four men let him go. They left soon after Smith executed the girl, left with no remorse. He crawled to the middle of the bridge, looked down to the water gap and found Oanh lied lifelessly on her back, her head broken after hitting the rock, left a halo of blood around her. 

“Damn it! Them motherfuckers!” Lee cursed. He sobbed soundlessly, hand gripped the girl’s rosary tight, feeling everything was not fair to be done. He tried to keep strong and got up. Walked soullessly, he went back to his lieutenant. 

 

The second group of survived villagers were already evacuated to the helicopter when Lee arrived not far from the bunker and found his lieutenant stood motionlessly. He saw Tony, Orly and Jack, did the same thing. Their face looked so blank, as well as the rest the third platoon men who arrived lately, originally led by Richard, but in order to ‘move on patrolling squad’ by Captain Miller, they dispersed. 

The third platoon was basically not involved in the incident as mostly of the men were just arrived at the scene when everything already ended up. The first five men were they who tried to prevent the other platoons’ men from killing the villagers, the second ones were they who arrived in the scene when the killing almost done—where nothing could be done, except helping the first squad kept the remained villagers safe in order of helicopter pilot, and the last one were they who finally reached the place when everything was over. The second and the last squad engaged some fighting with some escaped VC guerillas. These VCs attempted to escape from the hamlets earlier before the first and second platoon reached the area, went to the same route with the squads and finally got killed by them. The VCs left behind in the hamlets were obviously massacred along with the unarmed and innocent villagers.

What went wrong in the hamlets massacre incident were too hard to explain. Richard as the third platoon leader had no idea about the order to kill all the villagers, including livestock and pets. The order gave to his platoon was being the patrolling squads in order to stop the remaining VCs escape from the possible routes, while the first and second platoon occupied the two hamlets to search the penetrating VC among the villagers. The order giving on the briefing was to execute all remaining VCs on the suspected area, and he did not hear a word about killing the whole villagers. A conspiracy was something could be described for this felony. 

Rescuing the survived villagers from the brutal soldiers was something hard to do for the five men. If four of them were not under the protection of their platoon leader, they would definitely being shot for not following the order. The reason why Dillon could not execute Richard’s men was that they did not belong to the conspiracy mission and he had no authority to punish them or forced them to kill like he did to his own men. The innocence of the third platoon could put him into a real trouble in regard this would be brought to the U.S Court Martial seriously.

Back to the headquarter WO4 Karl Urban reported to his superiors about the massacre at two hamlets of Tinh Khe village. Soon, this matter reached Captain Miller’s superior Colonel Franklin, who was known as the ‘mastermind’ of the operation. He tried to found out the truth that the action was not the same as what he ordered and urged his men to stop any actions at the village by radio.


	4. The Cleanup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mess made by the first and second platoon was left to Richard and his men. At this point, everyone who worked side by side to cleanup the village got too much questions to ask inside their heads. Why they should be there? Why they couldn't do too much to stop the atrocity? Why it must be them the unarmed ones, the innocents, the children and the babies?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **This story isn't finished yet!**. There is still a **long way** to go. Yet I finished the first part here. the next part of this series will **coming soon**

As the command to knock off the killing arrived on the crime scene, Captain Miller ordered all troops to take a break and had lunch at about 11.00. It was the most coldblooded lunch Richard and his men ever seen in their life. A break for lunch after killing unarmed and innocent villagers including children and infants only made them got nauseous. 

Tony went numb, sitting on the dusty ground. His body trembled and he looked pale. Through his broken glasses he looked at the men around who looked back at him in question. 

“Hey, Tony, are you okay?” Corporal Aidan Turner who was known as the doc of the platoon asked the man.

“I’m alright, Doc,” Tony mumbled. He glanced at one point where he found the first platoon men enjoyed or got forced to enjoy their meals where piles of dead bodies were around. Then he turned around, bent down, and on his knees before he vomited. The others just cursed incoherently. 

“Oh damn,” Orly muttered, “I think ‘m gonna throw up too. Shit, how could they eat with the scattered brains, blood and guts around?” he asked, grabbed a pack of Marlboro from Lee’s hand. 

“They are fuckin’ sick, Sarge,” one soldier answered.

Orly nodded, “Fuck them all, Dillon’s bitches,” he cursed and groped his vest pocket, looking for a lighter where he could not find, “Hey, Pace, gimme your lighter,” he nudged Lee’s rib but the tall man did not respond. 

Lee just gazed emptily, dragging his cigarette and no words out. He felt really bad after seeing the girl being tortured and killed in such diabolic thing. 

“Lee,” Orly tapped his shoulder, “Are you alright?” he asked.

Lee shrugged, “How could you be alright to ask me whether I’m alright or not, Bloom?” he asked back giving his lighter.

“I’m not alright, Pace, no one with commonsense will be alright for this fucking thing,” Orly answered, lit his cigarette and dragged deeply.

“We’re almost three years in this goddamned place, Bloom, and it will be much better if they put me in a bloody fucking combat with VC or NVA than this piece of shit,” Lee went infuriated and left the other sergeant. 

Lee walked down to the paddy field where he found Richard sitting on a dried mound, head on his knees and cigarette burned down carelessly. 

“Lieutenant,” Lee called carefully. The lieutenant showed up his lousy face and dragged the almost forgotten cigarette. 

“Oh, hey there, Sergeant,” Richard said, smirked weakly. He felt terribly sorry for what happened in this hamlet as he could not do much to save the villagers. 

“Still there’s no order to pull the troops back, Sir,” Lee said, sat next to his lieutenant.

Richard shook his head, “No,” he stated, “I’ve called Captain Miller, he said he’s gonna be here for the next order.” 

Lee nodded. He took his helmet off and put it next to him. His hand reached the rosary in his chest pocket and pulled it out. He looked intensely at the bloodstained white beads and sighed.

“Where’d you get that, Pace?” Richard asked, looking at the rosary. 

Lee bit inside of his cheek, “A girl named Nguyen Thi Oanh. I tried to save her when they raped her, but she got killed before we could cross the bridge. They stabbed her and shot her with M60. She fell to the water gap, _head broken_ ,” he bit his lip to prevent him from crying. 

“Jesus,” Richard whispered, eyes closed for a moment, could hardly imagine the girl faced a terrible death. He opened his eyes and looked at the sergeant’s sad eyes.

“I’ll never let this thing ended up just like this. We have to do something, Pace. This is unfair,” Richard said, “There must be a Court Martial for this,” he hissed in anger. 

“You’ll be in trouble, Sir,” Lee said in pessimism. He for sure wanted this to be brought in the court, but he knew how this thing would be covered up perfectly by those who were the real masterminds. 

“I’ve been a trouble since the day I joined the Army, Sarge. I never let something I don’t like left untold and unanswered,” Richard insisted, left the sergeant’s eyebrows raised by his words, “This could be my next banishment from a unit I’m in, but who cares?” he shrugged.

Lee was just about to say something when suddenly Captain Miller appeared followed by Dillon and some of the captain assistants.  
“Lieutenant Armitage,” the captain said.

Richard got up from the mound, “Yes, sir,” he mumbled, could not hide his irritation against the man related to his order.

“Colonel Franklin ordered the first and second platoon to move back to the base. He told me to command you and your men in third platoon to clean up this mess,” the captain told. His face showed no remorse of what he did—at all, a truly cold blooded devil living in the shell of polite and respectable officer.

Richard did not say any word. He glanced at the other lieutenant and stared back at his superior.

“You hear me, don’t you, Dick?” The captain voice went higher. 

“Yes, Sir,” Richard finally said. He did not show any sign of being intimidated by his coldblooded captain. He feared nothing.

“Don’t you try to go against my order, Armitage. Remember how bad your reputation is as a _West Pointer_ man in this company. Don’t you make any other mess, under my command,” the captain’s voice went low.

“But you didn’t tell me anything about this illegal killing, Captain. I followed your order to search and destroy the remaining VC—not the unarmed villagers,” Richard insisted.

“There is no illegal killing. They all are VC, Lieutenant. The superiors had suspected this goddamned village for so long,” the captain was almost left when he halted his step, “And you don’t belong to the Nam, Dick. You’re U.S Army officer who work under the superior’s command. So, stop being a _preacher_ and _crusader_ in this hell,” then he left. 

Richard winced, “Yes, Sir,” he smirked in disgust. 

Lee just looked at the irritating Lieutenant Dillon who glared at him. He sighed and lit another cigarette. As he took the first drag of the cigarette, he looked how furious Richard was through his steel blue eyes. 

“Get Brody over here, Pace,” Richard commanded and Lee left to find the platoon sergeant, Staff Sergeant Adrien Brody. Soon, the tall man came back with a shorter and older man with long hooked nose. 

“Lieutenant, Sir,” Staff Sergeant Brody said, took his helmet off. 

“Captain Miller ordered us to clean up the mess. Get your men and move all dead bodies on one place,” Richard ordered. 

“ _Roger_ that, Sir,” Adrien nodded and went back to gather his men. 

 

The entire third platoon men, including their platoon leader worked together to evacuate the dead bodies that scattered all around the two hamlets. They mostly cursed to their fellow platoon men, swore and asked why they had to be there only to clean up their mess. Hundreds of bodies were piled up like worthless trash. Flies were already around and the smell of blood made them nauseated so bad. They got many children and infants among the dead ones and kept asking rhetorical question on why this must be done against them. Many of the soldiers recalled their families when they saw such view. They remembered their children and went emotional to imagine if this happened to them. All knew they were not innocent people, they’ve killed so many men, VCs or NVAs who had children and whose children were killed as well. No matter how bad they treated their real enemies in combat actions, such tragedy in this village was not necessary. 

It took a long time for them to search every dead body and evacuate them to one place. When it was done, many of them could not take any longer and vomited. This situation made Doc Turner went busy to treat them all. Lee took a gulp of water from his bottle. He smelled the rancid flesh as wind blew stronger around the place. In sudden, he vomited it to the ground and felt no better than many of his friends. Then he glanced at the pile of dead bodies where he found the girl named Oanh lied there on the top.

“That’s the girl,” he told Richard who finished his communication with the base to send them helicopters. 

Richard’s eyes looked for the said girl. He found her with blood soaked white blouse and trousers, lied down lifelessly. Her face could no longer be identified and the crack on her head, showed her scattered brain made her more miserable. 

“Damn it, those motherfuckers!” Richard hissed in detained anger. His chest moved up and down furiously and looked at Lee, frowning. 

“I think I’ll be with you to sue them to the Court Martial, Sir,” Lee said, biting inside of his cheek impatiently. 

Richard nodded, “Yeah. All of us should be,” he mumbled and left. 

_There was too much thing inside my head that time I hopped into the chopper and flew back to the camp. I could hardly think about them one by one. That left my head throbbed badly like a goddamned hell. I swore I still could not believe what I was seeing as the chopper hovered higher above the lifeless village. We saw the burned dwelling, the piles of dead bodies and even the blood marks on the ground from the height we were. All of us rarely talked to each other that moment we finished our job. It was unlike the time we finished a combat action with NVAs or VCs previously. We would talk like nothing happened while we realized our friends died or we got wounded. We would talk because it had to be happened to soldiers in a battlefield. What left us silent with no words his moment was that this would be one of the most miserable and diabolic things we ever seen in Vietnam._

_The reason why I would testify against the first and second platoon men under Captain Miller’s order was not merely because Oanh’s death. It was because I witnessed them slaughtering the whole villagers heartlessly. Yet still, for the rest of my life, I would and could never forget what they did to the girl. I was there and felt too terribly sorry because I could not help her crossed the goddamned bridge. As I realize I felt so bad about the whole things happened, but the image of Oanh being murdered was the worst in mind. I felt like I connected to her in the strange way in a very short moment before her death. I didn’t fall in love romantically with her, bur there was something I could not explain about this feeling. I remembered Sally, my big sister, the very moment I saw her. And now, I just realized how long I’ve been here and that I never wrote to my family any letter since the Tet Offensive began. After all, after I saw the terrible view in the village, I thought I really missed my home in Oklahoma and wanted to get out of here._

_At the right moment I looked at my platoon leader, sat not far from me, holding the threshold. His face pointed out at the sky unfocusedly. As I spent three years under his command, fought side by side with him, I never seen him that sad. I had no idea whether any of the other men noticed it or not. But I swore, I saw him crying at that crime scene when he almost gave up to save the villagers. I saw Crazy Dick, the toughest, roughest, maddest man in the company cried that moment he saw children and babies were slay. I grew admiring him more than I did before. He was the father for all of us in third platoon. Despite his bad reputation as a company officer compared to Dillon or Harper of the second platoon, everyone in our platoon loved Richard. He was a man who had been shot seven times and ain’t dead and was a man—I believe the only man who could penetrate VC barricade all alone to kill their guerilla commander and went back alive. People out there would always see him as a madman with terrible scars in his face, but we didn’t—we in the brotherhood of third platoon loved him. And rather than called him Crazy Dick like every men did, I personally prefer to call him Richard._


End file.
